


Data Analysis

by rdalvi



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 14:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2736761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rdalvi/pseuds/rdalvi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>aromantic!Shaw; luckily Root has a God who is excellent at translating feelings into data</p>
            </blockquote>





	Data Analysis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [talkingtothesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkingtothesky/gifts).



 

“Come on, it’s just a meal. It doesn’t mean anything.” Root followed Shaw around the headquarters as she tried to convince Shaw to go out for dinner with her.

“Do you really think I’m that stupid? That I don’t recognize a date when I see one.” Shaw looked at Root knowingly.

Root smiled sheepishly. She had been trying to convince her fun-sized partner to go out with her for weeks. She had tried a number of different ploys, but nothing had worked out so far. Shaw was more than willing to go out with her on missions but she had steadfastly refused to do anything even remotely social with her. She had tried asking but that hadn’t worked. She had trying tricking her into it but Shaw was too smart for that as well. Now she was down to pleading. Shaw still wasn’t willing to budge.

“Root, I’ve already told you I don’t do relationships. I don’t understand romance. Give me information, concrete data, numbers, that stuff I get. Look, I’m sorry but this is not going to happen.”

“But...” Root started to speak but Shaw stopped her.

“If you need my help you know where to find me, but right now I’m getting late for my day job. See you later.” saying that Shaw walked up the stairs. Root was left all alone staring at her receding form.

 Root turned around and walked back into the subway station and slumped down on the bench.

Harold was sitting inside the train tinkering one of the phones. He turned around and saw Root sitting there all alone, looking forlorn. He looked at her for a while and then got up and stepped out.

“Do you really like her?” he asked her.

Root looked up and smiled sadly. The smile was all that Harold needed to know the depth of Root’s feelings. He walked up to her and sat next to her.

“Then maybe it’s time to take a different approach.”

Root looked up at him questioningly.

“She says she understands numbers and hard facts then maybe that’s what you should do. Present her with hard facts and numbers about how you feel. Make her see the logic of it all and you have a god to help you do that.”

Root looked a little confused for a while and then she smiled.

“Yeah, that could work. That’s a great idea, Harold. I think I have some work to do. I’ll see you in a few days.”

Root leaned over and kissed Harold on the cheek, “Thanks Harold.”

After that she immediately got up of the bench, looking like a woman on a mission. Smiling she left the subway station.

 

After Root had left the hideout, Harold smiled gently, glad that he could be of help. He made his way back into the subway car to finish the work that he had started.

* * *

 

A few days turned into a week and there was still no sign of Root. After the first couple of days, Shaw started to drop by regularly and started to ask about her.

On the sixth day Shaw walked into the HQ and stood next to Harold without saying a word. Harold was busy tracing the whereabouts of their new number. A few moments later Shaw started tapping her feet. Then she started drumming her fingers on a hard disk lying on the table. Pretty soon the sound started to irritate Harold. He reached out and moved the hard disk out of Shaw’s reach.

“Ms. Shaw is there something on your mind?”

“No” Sameen replied quite unconvincingly.

Shaw moved back from the table and sat on the metal seat behind him. Harold went back to work. After a few moments of silence, the feet tapping started again. The subway car soon turned into a reverberating chamber and Harold couldn’t concentrate anymore.

“Ms. Shaw I am going to ask you again. Is there something on your mind?” he said in a slightly raised voice.

“I was just thinking about the number” came the reply.

“You are thinking about the insurance agent who is defrauding his clients. Really?” Harold wasn’t buying that answer for even a second. “Well if you must know he’s doing fine. I just traced his whereabouts and got into his bank accounts. His accounts are clean but his brother..”

“I don’t care.” Shaw interrupted him.

Harold turned around. Shaw expected him to look surprised instead he had a benign smile on his face.

“Alright fine, where is she? I haven’t heard from her in days. She usually calls me at least once every few days, if nothing else then to just irritate me.” Shaw was trying very hard to not sound too worried.

“Ms. Shaw, if I didn’t know you better, I would say you were worried about Ms. Groves.”

“Look, she’s a valuable member of the team. We can’t win this war without her. That’s all.” Shaw replied with a blank face or at least she was trying to.

Harold, in the meantime was trying very hard to stop himself from grinning, looked back at her, “Well if you put it that way Ms. Shaw then it makes complete sense. But sorry I haven’t heard back from her. She could very well be out of the country on a mission.” Then his face got a little more serious. “Besides if anything serious were to have happened, I am sure the machine would have found a way to let us know.”

Shaw’s shoulder slumped. She stuck around for while before she left to take care of their present number. Then she got frustrated and shot their number in the knee. He did deserve it but Harold still wasn’t pleased about it.

A week became two and Shaw was just about ready to explode. They had had a few numbers in the meantime but they weren’t distracting enough. She was finding it hard to sleep, something that had never happened to her before. One morning she woke up from a disturbed sleep and promised herself that she was going to ask Harold to contact the machine and ask her about Root. She didn’t care about the consequences, she just needed to know.

So that afternoon, on her lunch break she walked in to the bat cave determined to force Harold to do her bidding. She stepped into the subway car and was about to speak when Harold turned around and spoke first.

“Ah, Ms. Shaw good of you to drop by, I was going to call you.”

“What, Why?” Harold’s statement caught her off guard.

“There’s a package for you.” Harold pointed towards the table where a brown paper wrapped parcel waited for her.

Shaw was surprised.

“Someone delivered a package for me, here?”

“Oh no, it came at my address. It had two covers, the outside had my name but the inside wrapping said that it was meant for you. So I got it here.”

“What is it?” Shaw was suddenly curious about this mystery package. All thoughts of Root had momentarily left her mind.

“I don’t know. Maybe you should open it, and don’t worry I scanned it. It’s nothing suspicious.” Harold assured her.

Shaw stepped forward and picked up the package. It was rectangular and a little heavy. It felt like a book. She could feel the spiral binding through the packaging material. She carefully opened it just to be on the safe side. Inside was a large manual, roughly 300-400 pages. It was spiral bound.

She was a little surprised when she read the title.

“ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF HUMAN EMOTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS –

STATISTICAL EVIDENCE ON WHY SAMEEN SHAW BELONGS WITH ROOT”

Harold saw her expression and so he walked up to her to read the title. He snickered when he read the title. Shaw looked at him with murder in her eyes but couldn’t do anything to prevent him from smiling.

“I think I’m going to go back to my day job, if you don’t need me.” Shaw picked up the book and got up to leave.

“Oh, by all means Ms. Shaw, Mr. Reese can take of the new number for now.”

Shaw tucked the manual under her arm and left the subway station leaving a highly amused Harold watching her leave.

* * *

 

After her shift she reached home and spent the rest of the evening staring at the hefty report that lay on her bed. It had a bright blue-coloured cover with the title printed in bold capital letters. Shaw filled a glass of wine after her dinner and finally summoned up the courage to read the book.

She was trying to think what would have prompted her perky psychopath to do such a thing and then she remembered her last conversation with Root. She had said that she preferred hard facts and numbers to emotions. Shaw smiled and opened the book.

The report dealt with a variety of topics which ranged from Life Expectancy to Skills and even topics such as Compatibility, Travel and Food, Neurological and Biochemical Analysis of Emotional data and even Quality of life.

Shaw quickly skimmed through the book. It was full of charts and graphs. There were comprehensive notes and detailed explanations given in every section. This was going to take her days to read. But she decided to go through it. She was curious to know what Root was up to this time. So she opened the research manual and started reading it.

 

Root came into the headquarters sometime after Shaw had left.

“Did you give it to her?” she asked Harold.

“Yes” Harold smiled back at her. It was nice feeling to help out someone who wasn’t in a life or death situation. But then this situation could be considered more serious.

Root heaved a sigh of relief. Then a look of worry appeared on her face.

“Do you think it will work?”

“I don’t know. Let’s wait and see.”

* * *

  

Two days later

It was late evening and Shaw and Reese sat in their car waiting for their new number to leave work. Their number was a small time lawyer who had picked up case that might have put her in more trouble than she expected.

Shaw was a little distracted reading the report Root had written for her. She had gotten so engrossed in it that she had even forgotten to eat her cheese burger. This surprised Reese since it usually took some kind of a major catastrophe to make Shaw forget about food.

She was reading the section titled EMOTIONS AND BIOCHEMISTRY.

_“The subject has shown increased release of dopamine in close proximity to Root which leads the subject to experience emotions that can be categorised as happiness or joy._

_Studying the subject over the last two weeks has also shown a decrease in Serotonin levels leading to an increase in anxiety levels._

_Both these studies combined with the remaining studies and charts provided with this chapter show that Sameen Shaw is scientifically happier in the company of Root than being alone._

_Calculating all biochemical data collected the following conclusions have been reached._

  1. _State of general happiness in presence of Root will increase by 82%_
  2. _In absence of Root chances of high anxiety leading to high blood pressure and even cardiac problems can increase by 91%_



_It is therefore the recommendation of this study that Sameen Shaw should remain in close proximity of Root to maintain a general state of happiness.”_

Shaw put down the report. Their number was pulling another late night. She looked at Reese.

“Do you think I’m happier when Root is around?”

Reese put down the binoculars and looked at Shaw. He glanced at the big blue manual that Shaw had in her lap and smiled.

“I don’t know about that but I can definitely say that you have been a lot grumpier than usual and the only reason I can come up with is the fact that you haven’t seen Root in almost two weeks.”

“Hey, that’s not true. I am just worried because she’s important to the mission.” Shaw gave her usual response. But she knew that even she herself didn’t believe that anymore.

Reese grinned, “I know that she is very important to our war but you don’t see me getting that anxious about her absence.”

Reese stared at Shaw waiting for her to respond but she didn’t. She really didn’t have a good response to that statement. Sometime later their number showed up and they went back to work.

It wasn’t until she got back home that she remembered a certain section of the report. She opened it in a hurry and read it again.

“ _Studying the subject over the last two weeks...”_

She immediately put the report down.

“That bitch. She’s been spying on me all this time.” Shaw spoke out loud. She was furious.

But then she paused for a second. No matter how good Root was there was no way she could have been spying on her without her noticing it. She came to the conclusion that it had to be The Machine that had collected the data. It impressed her that Root was actually taking her god’s help to compile this report for her.

Shaw smirked and went back to reading the rest of it.

* * *

  

A few days later

Reese was out in the field taking care of a number while Shaw was with Harold in the lobby of a hotel waiting for someone connected to their present number.

The past few days had been busy so Shaw hadn’t managed to go through the entire report.

She was reading the section on Skills and Life expectancy.

_“Both Sameen Shaw and Root are skilled in combat situation but in different fields. Where Sameen Shaw is an extremely skilled in armed and unarmed combat, Root is a very skilled hacker and an expert with small guns. Their skills definitely complement each other._

_Since their skill sets are highly compatible if they work together life expectancy of both parties goes up by at least 78%.”_

“It must be a very engrossing read?” Harold’s question broke Shaw’s concentration. She had almost forgotten that he was there.

“It’s quite well researched.”

“So it seems, judging by the size of it.” Harold agreed.

“Is the report fulfilling its purpose? Are you any closer to making a decision?” Harold asked Shaw.

“I don’t know. I just have a little more to go. I will know more once I finish it. Have you seen Root?”

“She dropped by yesterday evening. She was tired from her mission so she slept here for a while. She asked about you a little bit, she was curious if you read the report.”

“Well she could have asked me that herself.” Shaw looked a little disappointed that she missed meeting Root.

“I think it would be safe to say that she’s avoiding you till you finish reading it. She seems as nervous as you are about the whole thing.”

“I’m not nervous.” Shaw was a little taken aback that Harold had managed to read her that easily.

“Ms. Shaw, you could have easily finished reading that report 3 days ago. Instead here you are still reading it. You were stuck on that page for nearly fifteen minutes.” Harold smiled knowingly.

“I just want to be thorough.” Shaw replied defensively.

“Of course Ms. Shaw.” with that Harold went back to work leaving Sameen to read the same paragraph for the fiftieth time.

* * *

  

It had been a week since Root had left the report for Shaw. Shaw had almost finished it by now. She was just going through the final section which was a fun one. It dealt with travel and food. It was good topic to read since she was sitting with Fusco in his car finishing a hotdog as they were watching their new number.

“This isn’t bad.” Fusco tried to speak between munching on his hot-dog.

“Umm, I’ve had better.”

“Oh yeah, those burgers you had made a couple a weeks ago. Those were amazing. It had some sort of spice in it I had never tasted before.”

   “Yeah, Root got it for me from South America when she came back from a mission.” Shaw explained casually as she finished her hotdog.

Fusco smiled, “Well I don’t know what it was but it was great. You know what else was great, that Chinese stuff that you gotten a few weeks back.”

Shaw was a little puzzled as she tried to remember the food that Fusco was talking about and then she recalled it.

“Oh that stuff, to be honest I didn’t make that.” Shaw confessed.

Fusco was a little surprised by the answer. Shaw would usually bring homemade food whenever she was on a stakeout with Fusco since they both shared a love for food. It was rare that she would get food from some restaurant. Usually if that was the case then they would pick out a restaurant or a take-away joint together.

“So, where did you get it from?” Fusco looked at Shaw questioningly.

“Actually Root made it for me.” Shaw replied softly almost as if she was being shy about sharing that information.

Fusco was genuinely surprised by this piece of information.

“Cuckoo clock can cook? I didn’t know that.”

“I didn’t either. It was a surprise for me too and she can cook really well.” Shaw agreed with Fusco.

“Is that why you didn’t want to share?” Fusco grinned at Shaw.

“I didn’t want to share because you always finish everything and she had made it for me.”

Fusco kept smiling and Shaw went back to monitoring their number. A little while later Fusco finally spoke and he sounded serious.

“How long are you keep this up?”

Shaw looked at Fusco questioningly.

“Keep what up?”

“Pretending that you don’t care about the super powered nut job.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Honestly, you’re going to play ignorant. You are happy when she’s around. You worry when she’s not. She gets you stuff from her trips. She cooks stuff for you and you like all of it. Do you really need a scientific report to tell you that you actually like being with her?”

Shaw remained silent. She really didn't have an answer for Fusco, but she had finally reached a decision.

* * *

 

 

The next day Shaw landed up at the HQ during her lunch break. As she approached the subway she could hear a conversation. It was Root talking to Harold. As Shaw entered the subway Root turned around to see who it was and froze when she realized it was Shaw.

Sameen decided to break the silence.

“Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Been busy. You know how it is. I was just about to leave.” Root avoided looking at Shaw and began to make her way out of the subway car.

Watching her leave again so soon caught Shaw by surprise. At that moment she knew how much truth there was in everything that Fusco had said. Not that she would ever admit it to him. She knew that she had to stop Root from leaving.

“I finished reading the report.” Shaw blurted out.

Root was halfway across the platform and she stopped. She turned around and looked at Shaw apprehensively.

“And?”

“It’s quite well researched. It makes a lot good points.”

“I had help.” Root replied with an awkward smile.

“Yeah, I realized that.”

The conversation suddenly dried up as they both stared at each other wondering what to do next. This time it was Root restarted the conversation.

“So, what did you think?”

“Well, I think I like steak.” Shaw replied with a smile.

“What” Root looked confused.

“If you want to go out for dinner, I like steak.” Shaw elaborated.

Root was all of a sudden beaming with joy.

“We could go to New Orleans. Check out that place you spoke about.”

“Sounds like a plan. So you want to walk me to my job. We can discuss the details along the way.”

Root didn't reply but she started walking with Shaw who was making her way out of the subway station. She had completely forgotten about the reason why she had come to the HQ in the first place but Harold chose not to stop either one of them.

As they both ascended the stairs Shaw turned towards Root and spoke.

“You know that later I’m going to kick your ass, right?”

“Why?”

“Well, firstly for disappearing for two whole weeks and then using The Machine to spy on me and using me as a guinea pig. But let’s have dinner first.”

Root laughed nervously since she knew that Shaw was quite serious about the ass-kicking. But if it was going to be after dinner she could consider it as foreplay.

Root grinned and followed Shaw out of the subway station as she mentally started to plan out their date.

 


End file.
